big boss

My boss has this habit of calling me during weekends and vacation times, saying "Hello *****, where are you now?" and wanting to take care of some kind of business. Friday I was at the beach. He was out apartment hunting because he wants me to live in a cheaper one. He calls again today, Sunday, and again I am out. But I decide to come back to look at this apartment he was raving about. Only it is nothing that impresses me. I don't get it. He goes on and on about how big it is, with a river view, and so on, and I get there and there is no river view. There is no desk. There isn't even enough room to have a dinner party for 4 people. There is, however a turquoise sofa and side seat set that is much too large for the "living" room. So afterward I tell him, sorry, this one is not for me. Then he tells me oh, the lease on your place where you are now runs out in about 3 or 4 days because it's only for 3 months. #%%&#$&8!! "And I rented this new one for 1 year for the school already." @#$%#$%@#$%!! So I say, dude, this puts me in a difficult position. I mean you know like it is not easy to move, it is a lot of trouble, right? And I do not feel like moving into some place I don't even like. I like to entertain. Where I am is OK, I don't mind to pay something until I can find something to suit the (miniature) budget. Or maybe I don't want this (low and cheapass) budget anyway. I can handle my own apartment rental. So he says he will talk to my landlord to see if we can renew for 3 more months. He was expecting me to share my (tiny) flat with another foreign colleague as it costs a bit more than a 1 bedroom. But nowhere in my contract does it say anything about requiring me to share housing, which I refused after our housing mgr had already shown my place to another new teacher. Lucky for me that time it was really dirty, so she was probably not enamored by the idea either. The second boss will get an earful tomorrow. And why isn't the housing mgr taking care of any of this? (because he is a freaking lazy SoaB that should be fired like yesterday!)

After that I met some friends I made a few weeks ago. It was a great moment to catch up on each others' lives as they are from other cities in China -- so we are all somewhat 'outsiders' to Shanghai. It was a coffee meeting, and then I invited them to come over to my house for dinner because I had already made a beef soup earlier today. They were spontaneous and free and decided to come over. So we laughed a lot and found we even have some of the same tastes in music.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March 1, 2011

Szechuan Spicy Wontons Makes about 50 wontons (Feeds 6)   Filling: 1.5 lbs ground pork (half fatty/half lean) 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 Large pieces Woodear Fungus, soaked and chopped finely 1/4 cup green onion, chopped finely Soy Sauce Hoisin Sauce Sesame Oil Sugar 2 packs Shanghai Style dumpling wrappers, square kind (they are white, as opposed to the yellow Cantonese-style wrappers)   Dressing : Chili Oil Vinegar Garlic, finely minced 1/4 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped 2 stalks scallions, rougly chopped   Combine your pork, shrimp, green onion and woodear fungus. I find that the best way to mix your filling is to lay it all out on large cutting board and mince it up with a cleaver. Incorporate the soy, hoisin, sesame oil, and sugar to taste. Mince until you have a fine paste. Place a quarter-size amount of meat in the center of the wrapper. Dip your finger in a cup of water and trace the water around half the dumpling, it will act as glue when you press all the
Read more

You know you've been in China for a while when...

-everyone you know has had some kind of major digestive problem that seemed life-threatening at the time -you no longer ask why, you just go on with a WTF sigh -it's an ordinary thing to see someone walking backwards clapping their hands on the sidewalk -you get on the elevator and there is you, a family of 3, a bike, and a stroller and it doesn't seem crowded -you are used to getting your salary in cash -your taxi swiped your refillable pay card and switched it on you to one with a zero balance -you live in local housing and have no heat source in your kitchen or bathroom, but that's ok because why do we heat them anyway? -receiving international personal mail is a cause for celebration -you regularly take motorcycle taxis...      
Read more

Reading

I have a problem with reading. I love to read. The better the book, though, the more in-depth it is, the slower I go. Like I've been reading Sidney Rittenberg's "The Man Who Stayed Behind" and it is taking over a month. I cannot read it every day. It is so much. And so great. It is the history of his life and the birth of modern China. He was there. He lived it and fluently -- not a little -- extremely fluently in Mandarin, participated. I cannot rush this reading. I am fascinated by it. Everyone who is interested in how the current China came to be should read that. I am also reading Derek Sivers' ebook -- I love it but I need to re-read several things. The drawings are really funny, too. This is about how to succeed in the music business, in particular if you are an independent musician. An interesting and thought-provoking read.
Read more